The present invention relates to a method of operation for a machine with a plurality of position-controlled axes, a system program, wherein the system program for operating the machine according to such method, a control device for a machine having a plurality of position-controlled axes, and a machine having a plurality of position-controlled axes controlled by the control device.
The following discussion of related art is provided to assist the reader in understanding the advantages of the invention, and is not to be construed as an admission that this related art is prior art to this invention.
Part programs for machines with a plurality of position-controlled axes are often created using, programming tools. As part of the creation of the part programs, the part programs are usually checked for absence of collisions. For this purpose processing of the part program is simulated by a computing device. As part of the simulated processing a check is made, by means of a model of the machine, as to whether the movement of the end effector along the track defined by the part program is possible without collisions. The model of the machine is often able to be parameterized. In this case the model of the machine is parameterized such that the correspondingly parameterized model emulates the machine as well as possible. In particular the corresponding parameters are predetermined manually to the computing device by an operator of the computing device.
The computing device is a separate device from the control device of the machine. If the simulation produces a collision the part program is changed. If the simulation does not produce a collision the part program is transferred to the control device and is executed there.
Transfer of the modeling of the machine to the control device is also known. In this case the control device checks—as an alternative or in addition to the check by means of the computing device—by means of the parameterizable model of the machine while processing the system program before the control of the position-controlled axes, whether the movement of the end effector along the track as defined by the part program is possible without collisions.
Despite the checking of the part program by means of the computing device and/or the control device beforehand, collisions still occur sometimes in the prior art.
It would therefore be desirable and advantageous to obviate prior art shortcomings and to provide an improved method and device which the danger of collisions can be recognized more reliably than previously.